Orion

Kings Island entered the 2020s having built its reputation on wood coasters and mid-sized steel, but had never fielded a true "giga" — the 300-plus-foot height class only a handful of parks worldwide have attempted. Vortex had closed in 2011 and Son of Beast in 2012, leaving a gap in the park's steel lineup that a new flagship needed to fill.

Bolliger & Mabillard designed Orion specifically for Kings Island, wrapping it in a Project X storyline about prototype spacecraft racing to escape a coming meteor storm. A chain lift carries trains to 300 feet before a first drop launches them through 5,321 feet of track and eight major hills at up to 91 mph, instantly making Orion the tallest, fastest, and longest coaster in the park's history.

The giga class Orion joined is exclusive — at the time, only a handful of complete-circuit coasters anywhere had cleared 300 feet — and USA Today's 10Best.com readers later voted it Best New Amusement Park Attraction for 2020.

More than five years later, Orion remains the park's marquee steel coaster and a fixture in national top-10 rankings, anchoring the futuristic Area 72 land built around it.